The five healthy lifestyle rules that could prevent dementia

By adhering to five healthy, positive lifestyle choices, a person stands to slash their risk of developing dementia by around two thirds, according to the findings of a new Welsh study.

Lead author Professor Peter Elwood, from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, said healthy aspects of life are “far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventive procedure”.

“The size of reduction in the instance of disease owing to these simple healthy steps has really amazed us and is of enormous importance in an ageing population,” he said.

“What the research shows is that following a healthy lifestyle confers surprisingly large benefits to health – healthy behaviours have a far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventive procedure.”

Professor Elwood said that it was apparent that “very few people” had a healthy enough lifestyle that would be sufficient in avoiding the onset of dementia.

“Taking up and following a healthy lifestyle is however the responsibility of the individual him or herself,” he said.

“Sadly, the evidence from this study shows that very few people follow a fully healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, our findings reveal that while the number of people who smoke has gone down since the study started, the number of people leading a fully healthy lifestyle has not changed.”

The five key aspects of staving off a disease that has afflicted 800,000 people in the UK are as follows: engaging in regular exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, not smoking, sticking to a healthy diet and minimising alcohol intake.

Making sure to stick to at least four of the five healthy lifestyle habits may reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline by a staggering 60%, the researchers from Cardiff University found.
The benefits of following four of the habits doesn’t stop there though, this could also help to reduce new cases of diabetes, heart disease and stroke by 70%. This would be compared to those who followed none of the lifestyle habits.

The researchers, beginning in 1979, tracked 2,235 men from Caerphilly who were aged between 25 and 49, for a 35-year period. Behavioural patterns were recorded, with regards to the participants’ health, firstly looking at the possible causes of heart disease as this disease was rife in the area.
However, as time passed through the cohort study, focus was shifted to analysing the devastating effects of dementia and strokes.

It was determined that if half of the men involved in the study had be pressed into even adopting just one of the healthy lifestyle habits in 1979, this could have resulted in a 13% drop in dementia cases, in addition to 12% less diabetes diagnoses, 6% fewer cases of vascular disease and the number of fatalities may have even been 5% less.

The findings were published in advance of today’s crucial meeting of health ministers from the G8 nations, which will aim to find new, more efficient ways of tackling the disease worldwide.

David Cameron has already state that by 2025 the UK will double its annual funding for dementia research to £132 million, a significant increase from the 2015 target of £66 milliom. The prime minister’s announcement will be welcomed by many with estimates showing that the global number of dementia sufferers could treble to 135 million by 2050.

Moreover, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently unveiled their plan to conduct random, unannounced inspection visits that will assess the care of dementia patients at 150 institutions across England.

NHS inquiry results in 11 trusts placed under ‘special measures’

The furore is continuing over the alarmingly high death rates at 14 hospitals, following the publication of NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh’s review, who described the situation at the 14 hospitals as “trapped in mediocrity”, saying that had often disregarded concerns raised by either patients or staff.

The report highlighted staffing levels behind many of the issues and lack of oversight, adding that staff regularly did not attend to the needs and requirements of patients.

Shockingly, a member of Sir Bruce’s review panel even stated that there may be other hospitals across the country that have more appalling care and conditions than those at the 14 hospitals involved in the investigation.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt also revealed yesterday that 11 of the NHS trusts are being placed under “special measures”, saying “we can no longer ignore mediocre treatment.” The 11 in the spotlight will be subjected to intense on-going scrutinisation for the immediate future, including “hit squads” of external experts being sent in to oversee the urgent improvements.

Speaking in the commons, Mr Hunt told fellow MPs: “No statistics are perfect but mortality rates suggest that since 2005, thousands more people may have died than would normally be expected at the 14 trusts reviewed. Worryingly, in half of those trusts, the Care Quality Commission – the regulator specifically responsible for patient safety and care – failed to spot any real cause for concern, rating them as ‘compliant’ with basic standards.”

Some of the 11 hospitals facing intense monitoring include Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, in Greater Manchester, where Sir Bruce’s teams discovered some patients were being left unattended for several hours on trolleys and Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with many staff being found to have worked for 12 hour stretches.

Sir Bruce’s report highlighted countless other examples of poor care at the 11 worst hospitals, such as patients being repeatedly transferred between wards without being given an explanation why, blood being taken from patients in open view of fellow patients on wards, and low levels of clinical cover – out of hours times in particular.

Sir Bruce said: “Higher mortality rates do not always point to deaths which could have been avoided but they do act as a ‘smoke alarm’ indicator that there could be issues with the quality of care. Not one of these trusts has been given a clean bill of health by my review teams. These reviews have been highly rigorous and uncovered previously undisclosed problems. Mediocrity is simply not good enough and, based on the findings from this review I have set out an achievable ambition which will help these hospitals improve dramatically over the next two years.”

The row has quickly gotten political in the commons, with several heated exchanges taking place this week as the Conservatives and Labour were quick to point the finger at each other for the NHS failings.

Mr Hunt tried to blame the failings within Sir Bruce’s report on the previous Labour Government, saying Andy Burnham, the Shadow Health Secretary, had not acted on warnings of poor care quality when he was in office and of “muzzling” regulators.

He also claimed that since 2005 “thousands more people may have died than would normally be expected” across the 14 hospitals with high mortality rates.

But Sir Bruce was quick to disregard Mr Hunt’s accusations however, saying that any effort to use statistical measures to “quantify actual numbers of avoidable deaths” was “clinically meaningless and academically reckless”.

After the publication of findings at the 14 hospitals, the NHS now has to comply with eight ‘ambitions’ by Sir Bruce in the report:

1. Reduce avoidable deaths with early warning systems for deteriorating patients and introduce more accurate statistical measurement of mortality rates.
2. Expertise and data on how to deliver high quality care to be more effectively shared between NHS trusts.
3. Patients, carers and the public should be more involved, and should be able to give real-time feedback.
4. Patients should have more confidence in the regulator the Care Quality Commission, with wider participation of patients, nurses, and junior doctors on review teams.
5. Hospitals in remote areas should not be left isolated, with staff from better-performing hospitals used to train and inspect others.
6. Nurse staffing levels and mix of skills should be appropriate to the patients being cared for on any given ward.
7. Medical directors should “tap into the latent energy of junior doctors” and include them in review panels.
8. NHS employers should make efforts to ensure staff are “happy and engaged”.